9 Easy Steps To Defeat Laziness

Everybody feels a little lazy at times. But laziness on a regular basis can have a severe unfavorable effect on your life. Laziness is a natural tendency. All animals incline towards comfort, or at least what's viewed to be comfortable. However, laziness is indulging in short-term convenience at the cost of long-term pain.

Do you understand anybody with a terrific life that's lazy? In time, the law of cause and effect holds true. Laziness has a long-lasting cost.

Beat laziness and accomplish more:

1. Discover a reason to get excited. Think about the advantages you'll get by getting it done. It might be the completed result that thrills you or that you're learning and growing. Perhaps showing self-discipline is something that you can get thrilled about. It's much more difficult to accomplish something if you're complaining about it.

2. Set a due date. When you have plenty of time to complete something, or no deadline at all, it's human nature to procrastinate. Setting a deadline in the near future can help to focus your interest and energy.

3. Develop smaller sized jobs from the main task. Every big job can be done in steps. Even building a house has steps. First the site needs to be prepared. Then the foundation is created, and the framing begins. The remaining steps are followed until your house is completed.

The total task might be big and challenging. However, the individual jobs, or steps, might be easier to handle.

4. Concentrate on taking the first step. When you get started, the momentum you have actually produced can carry you far. Action breeds further action. Sitting on the sofa tends to result in more sitting. Instead of stressing over the mountain of work ahead of you, focus on getting one easy job finished.

5. Find something that motivates you. It can be something as basic as a book of motivating quotes or a song that energizes you. You already know what inspires you. Utilize it to your benefit.

6. Consider the pain of not starting. We're good at imagining the discomfort of getting started, but attempt to imagine the opposite. Exactly what will take place if you continue to be lazy? What will it cost you in the future? What has it cost you so far? Instead of using discomfort as a need to lazy, use pain to produce action.

7. Remind yourself that the last few years have flown by. Laziness is frequently a chronic condition. A great deal of time has passed in the last 5 years, but how much have you achieved? Five years goes by quickly, especially when one day appears to be a copy of every other day. Life is wasting away. Get up and do something!

8. Reward yourself for taking action. Get something done and celebrate. You may not have done enough to reward yourself with a brand-new car, but you deserve to get excited and take pride in yourself and your accomplishments.

9. Be patient. It's common to believe that action comes from inspiration, but the opposite might be more real. Action results in more and better results.

As you achieve results, that breeds more motivation. Be psychologically tough and just get busy. You'll have a need to be motivated soon enough.

Avoid enabling laziness to keep you on the sidelines. It will take your time and limit your results!

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6 Quick Questions to Help You Simplify and Free Up Time for What Truly Matters

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
Charles Richards

There are many important things in life.

Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. Reading, learning and growing as a person.

But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your time. This week I’d like to share 6 of the best questions I have found for doing just that and for shaking yourself out of a rut.



1. What are the top 3 most important priorities in my life right now?

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work. On things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or because of other unhelpful reasons.

To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you.

So ask yourself: what are the top 3 most important priorities in my life right now?

Write those three things down on two notes and put one in your work space and the other one on your bedside table.

2. What are the 1-3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way?
Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by:
Shutting the door to your office.
Putting your phone on silent mode.
Having notifications for your email or instant messaging program/app shut off.

3. What are the 1-3 most common distractions that keep me from having quality time with the people closest to me?

The answer could for instance be your smart phone, TV-shows you just watch out of routine and not because you like them very much or bringing your work back home.

Then figure out how you can reduce or eliminate those distractions.

4. What is one healthy limit I can start setting in my life this week?

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time is to set limits.

Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful and healthy limits for:
Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.
Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.
Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this winter and in 2017.

5. How can I minimise or eliminate one thing I may have missed?

What else can you eliminate or minimise besides the things listed above? Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some online forum you hang out on a lot?

Really question and reconsider your own daily and weekly habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it is what you usually do.

6. What is one piece of unnoticed or misused piece of free time during my regular day?

There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year.

What will you use such time for as we approach the end of this year and go into 2017?

Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or while waiting for a meeting to start. I, for example, often listen to podcasts while I’m out and about or while waiting for a meeting.

Even if you only have 10-20 minutes of commuting time each day you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.

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5 Tips from Billionaires to Help Achieve High Productivity

There are a ton of viral articles out there that are about “habits of millionaires” or“habits of successful people.”

Quite frankly, they are a bit plain and overdone.


5 Billionaire’s Tips to Achieve High Productivity

This advice comes directly from dozens of interviews and books by billionaires I have consumed. I decided to get advice from only the best of the best.

Here are 5 tips from billionaires on how to achieve high productivity:

1. Keep Your Calendar Simple

Keep your calendar clear and organized. Rather than having hundreds of complicated tasks on there, simplify it to the most important. Drop the rest.

The average person has many low-priority tasks that distract them on their calendar. It’s not a good idea to stuff your calendar with a thousand, small random tasks.

Warren Buffett has mentioned this many times in interviews.

Bill Gates has remarked about how amazing this is after learning it from Warren. Bill has used it himself since then.


2. Do What’s Most Important First

Your most important task should be done first when you start the day.

Average people fill their day with unimportant tasks. The start of their day is filled with tasks that could have gone undone and had minimal impact.

By the end of the day, their most important tasks are still incomplete and often pushed off until tomorrow. This leads to further procrastination and small results.

They were busy but not effective or impactful. You don’t want to be the person who does busywork to look busy rather than strategic, smart work.

Warren Buffett’s pilot, Mike Flint, learned this lesson after talking to Buffett.


Mike learned that the biggest threat to finishing the #1 most important task on your list is #2, #3, #4, #5, and so on. Throw out the other tasks until you finish #1.


3. Delegate Lower Priority Tasks

If your time is worth $50 an hour, every hour you waste doing tasks that can be outsourced for much less is a waste of time.

Do you know why billionaires don’t shop for groceries or cook themselves?

Part of the reason is because they can afford to. But according to billionaires like Richard Branson, part of the reason is because it’s an inefficient use of their time.

According to the book 15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management: The Productivity Habits of 7 Billionaires, failing to delegate low cost tasks can cost you tons of money.

If your time is worth $1000 an hour, you shouldn’t spend an hour a week buying groceries because you can get the same result in less time and earn more money.

Pay someone $20 an hour to do it for you and spend that time you bought back working. You have now earned $980 after expenses rather than losing an hour doing it yourself without earning anything.

OK, so you might not be making as much as $1000 an hour. But the same thought process can apply to how you spend your time. If your time is worth $25 an hour, how much time are you wasting at work and at home goofing off? 

4. Find Your Peak Performance Environment

People are different. Your most productive environment may be different from someone else’s.

Look for what time of day and what type of surroundings are you most productive in.
For example, some people find that they do the most creative work in loud, crowded coffee shops. Others prefer complete, isolated silence. Some people are most alert and focused in the mornings, while others do better late at night.

Build your environment and schedule to fit your optimal levels of performance.


5. Plan Out What You Will Do

According to the book, top performing billionaires plan out what they will do next ahead of time.

Plan out what you will do tomorrow and the next week. You can save hours of time by working more efficiently from the plans you made.

Without proper planning, your disorganization will cost you efficient moments of optimal workflow.

You’ll be confused and unsure of what to do. You’ll spend extra time trying to figure out what’s more important. You will be dazzled if you get interrupted and unsure where to resume.


Conclusion

There should be no excuses. Anyone is capable of turning these productivity tips into habits. I think the reasons people don’t are the lack of awareness and laziness.

Remember to keep your calendar simple, do what’s most important first, delegate lower priority tasks, find your best environment, and plan out what you will do next.
Are you as productive as a billionaire? Leave a comment below.

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Organization Tips: Cleaning Up Your Workspace And Your Calendar

A lot of people think that being an entrepreneur means that I can do anything I want, anytime I want. While it’s true that I don’t have a boss who dictates my schedule, that doesn’t mean I’m just free-floating all the time—as an entrepreneur, I have learned to have a lot of self-discipline and to be very organized in my business and my life. So today I’m sharing with you some of my favorite organization tips. Your business can only grow to its full potential if your space and your time are clearly organized—I hope these tips help you clear the clutter and maximize your potential!

DESIGNATE A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING

Time is money, as they say, and having an organized space will save you time. If you don’t take 10 seconds to put something in its proper place, you might lose 10 minutes looking all over for it later. When I complete a project for my DIY business, I don’t call it a day until each tool is put back into its designated space and the workshop is clean. In those moments, I’m often tired and ready to relax at that point in the day, but I motivate myself by imagining how inviting my workshop will be when I set to work on my next project—and how much time (and, therefore, money!) I’m saving in the long run.

LOOK AT YOUR SPACE THROUGH SOMEONE ELSE’S EYES

Schedule frequent meetings at your workspace, whether that’s a home office, a rented space, or a workshop. Knowing that you’ll have regular visitors will force you to keep it orderly. When we’re the only one using our space, we have a tendency to become “blind” to dirt and clutter that might accumulate over time. But as soon as someone else comes by, we suddenly see what’s overflowing or out of place. Use this fact to your advantage by regularly inviting clients and colleagues to meet with you at your workspace—the pressure to have a clean, hospitable space will compel you to keep things organized.

TRY OUT THE KONMARI METHOD

If your space really needs an overhaul, I highly recommend picking up Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. This unlikely bestseller has taken the U.S. by storm and, after finally having a look at it myself, I can understand why. Kondo’s “KonMari Method” of organization involves radically purging your home or workspace of anything that does not “spark joy.” While this criterion might seem strange for organizing an office space, its basic premise of getting rid of anything that’s not serving a purpose seems right on target. The extreme purge takes time—Kondo recommends laying everything out and methodically putting back only what you need—but it is time well spent if, as she argues, you’ll never need to do it again!

KNOW WHERE YOU’RE GOING—AND PARK ON A DOWNHILL SLOPE

The first three tips dealt with organizing our space; now let’s turn to how we manage our time. I force myself to make a plan in advance for each day and WRITE IT DOWN. If my plan for the next day (or at least for the first half of the day) is written down in my planner, then I don’t have to think about it for the rest of the evening. I can relax knowing that my instructions will be there waiting for me when I wake up. Sometimes I even make a point of stopping short of completing a particular task the day before so that I can begin the next day by picking up where I left off. Productivity experts call this “parking on a downhill slope,” and it can really help you start the day off with some momentum.

TURN A TO-DO LIST INTO A TO-DO SCHEDULE

A list is designed to be added to, so it can make it hard to feel satisfaction if you’re adding as much as your checking off. To remedy this, try turning your to-do list into a to-do schedule. When I consult my calendar at the start of each week, I write in my to-do’s alongside my scheduled appointments. If I assign an actual time to a task, I am far more likely to actually get that task done. Having a to-do schedule has taught me to be much more realistic about how much I can get done in a given time. Sometimes it means not having time for everything on the to-do list, but it’s better to know that in advance than feel disappointed at the end of the week. With this method, I’ve found that not only am I getting more done but also I’m more tuned in to my schedule and can therefore say yes or no to new projects with much more confidence.

PUT YOUR SCHEDULE WHERE YOU AND OTHERS CAN SEE IT

Put your important appointments/tasks on a shared, visible calendar where everyone else who matters can see it (family members, coworkers, roommates…). If you make your schedule and goals “public” in this way, you can avoid scheduling conflicts. You’ll also be more likely to complete tasks on time, because others can hold you accountable. You might share your schedule digitally, via a Google calendar or other shared site, but you can also go the try-and-true dry erase marker route. For home use, I got a magnetic wipe-off calendar from The Board Dudes with a set of markers so I can color-code based on category or person. For the office, I like their bigger and more professional-looking glass wipe-off calendar—it’ll keep you organized, give you a highly visible place to write down goals and important reminders, and look sleek if clients or collaborators come by.

STICK TO A SYSTEM

Don’t be fickle. I love organizational tools, but sometimes they work against me because I get so excited about the newest app or planner that I don’t stick with one long enough to really reap its benefits. The most important thing about an organizational system is not if it’s pen-and-paper or digital, or if it’s got flashy new bells and whistles—the most important thing is that you stick to it. So do a little bit of research to decide what approach might be best for you, and then hurry up and start using it!

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